Portugal’s Best Kept Secret

A SELECT GATHERING was treated to a delectable fine dining experience at the Notting Hill Kitchen this Monday evening, put together by four of Portugal’s best chefs: Luís Baena, now head chef and patron at the host venue; Vasco Lello from the Bairro Alto Hotel in Lisbon; celebrity chef Henrique Sá Pessoa, of Restaurant Alma, soon to be reopened in the Chiado district of Lisbon; and Rui Paula of Restaurant Boa Nova. The chefs worked closely with Antonio Lopes, sommelier from the Conrad Algarve, who presented the wines he had chosen in collaboration with TASTE PORTUGAL’s executive sommelier Arnaud Vallet of Vila Joya. The VIP event was hosted by the Portuguese Tourism Board and TASTE PORTUGAL 2014/15 to help promote Portuguese gastronomy to those who can most help spread the word further.

Among the VIP guests were Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, the Secretary of State for Tourism in Portugal; João Cotrim de Figueiredo and Luís Matoso, President and Vice President of the Portuguese Tourism Board respectively; António Padeira, Director of the Portuguese Tourism Board in the UK; José Aragão from aicep; and the Portuguese Ambassador, João de Vallera, who opened the event with one of his lively and enthusiastic speeches about the recent developments of his country, highlighting its success, with two digit growth in the three main tourism sectors this past year: visitors (14%), overnight stays (12%) and revenue (16%).

The Secretary of State went on to say: ‘For decades, Portuguese gastronomy and cuisine was a hidden secret. We don’t mind that it is a secret, but hidden is something that we cannot support. We strongly believe that our popularity as a touristic destination has a lot to do with our authenticity, our own products, our own history and culture. And that’s why we’re hosting this event and promoting our gastronomy.’

Guests were greeted in the bar area of the Georgian townhouse with an aperitif of Colinas Espumante Brut Rosé 2009, a sparkling pinot noir from the Bairrada region, the area from which 70% of Portuguese sparkling wines derive. This was also paired with the delightful amuse bouche, served after the speeches, which was prepared by the host chefs. The snack was a variation on the traditional tiborna, prepared by olive harvesters with an Alentejan bread spread with really fresh olive oil and garlic. Here, sourdough toast was spread with pork fat from pancetta, topped with pata negra, truffled yolk from an egg cooked at 65 degrees, and bone marrow, burnt with a blowtorch. The artful platter was then sprinkled with chervil.

Baena went on to produce the first starter as well, again using the blowtorch, this time to blast some fresh mackerel, slow cooked first for two and half minutes. This was served with a terrine of butternut squash and smoked sea salt, purple artichoke and an escabeche sauce made with the Azorean speciality of safflower stems. The dish was carefully paired with Quinta do Monte D’Oiro, Madrigal Branco 2012 from Bento dos Santos, a big gastronomer who turned to making wine in the early 2000s. A viognier grape, it was chosen particularly for its low acidity, due to the high acidity of the escabeche.

The second starter was prepared by Lello, who trained in art school before becoming a chef. ‘Cooking is an art form as well,’ he explained. ‘I can express myself with the dishes I make. It’s an ephemeral art. You work for that moment and then it’s gone. That’s why I like it.’ And indeed, his diners like it too. Building his dish around the southern Portuguese speciality of the carabineiro, or red prawn, Lello wanted to capture and present the fresh seafood flavours so prevalent in his country. A red prawn – ‘it’s not a common thing, but it’s top of the prawns’ – was poached in its own stock and served with fennel puree, goose barnacles, cuttlefish deep fried with dried seaweed and a red prawn bisque with tapioca pearls. This was paired with Quinta da Pedra 2010, an alvarinho grape from the Vinho Verde region. Much more acidic than the previous wine, it was chosen to cut the sea-like flavours of the dish.

The meat dish of suckling pork belly sous-vide, sweet potato, pak choi & ginger infused orange was one of Sá Pessoa’s signature dishes, inspired by the national dish leitão (spit roast suckling pork cooked in a rustic oven). Adding his own blend of Asian ingredients, inspired by time spent in Sydney, Sá Pessoa sought to render it a little more precise and modern. For this, a red wine had been selected: Niepoort Rótulo Dão Tinto 2012. A very light and smooth wine, its flowery hints came together with the sweet flavours of the dish to create a little more complexity in the palate, while its tannins cut the structure of the pork.

Dessert was a simple yet luxurious affair: Paula’s chocolate tart with Port ice cream, made from different chocolates and decorated with Port wine foam. Paula wanted to use a key ingredient that he felt represented something unique from Portugal – ‘and it’s a good pairing with chocolate,’ he smiled. This was served with Taylor’s Vintage Port 1985, a mature vintage, which, according to Lopes, ‘has much to say already’. Thanks to its complexity, it was able to pair well with all the flavours of the different Port used in the dessert.

To finish, Paula also brought out dishes of petit fours, accompanied by coffee. Together, these four chefs managed to epitomise all that is special about a secret that ought not to be so well kept.